Charleson received an M.A. in architecture from Edinburgh University (1970) before training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Very soon thereafter he was cast in leading roles, first with the Young Vic Theatre company and then with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was particularly admired for his Shakespearean work and for portraying such American characters as Sky Masterson in the musical Guys and Dolls (1982), Eddie in Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love (1985), and Brick in Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1988).

Charleson’s role in Chariots of Fire, as a Scottish runner whose religious beliefs almost caused him to forfeit the chance to win an Olympic medal, was his best known. He also had featured roles in the films Jubilee (1978) and Gandhi (1982) and in television productions of Julius Caesar and All’s Well That Ends Well. He was acclaimed for his performance as Hamlet at the National Theatre two months before his death.

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